BS. In terms of the power of the state and the power of centralgovernment - federal government - in particular, they were the mostliberal and progressive bunch in US history. In going from theArticles of Confederation to the US Constitution, they implemented thebiggest expansion of the size and scope and raw power of the federalgovernment in US history by far.

> Even the architect of the welfare state, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, understood the menace of the public sector union and rejected them. >

"I have to correct the misinformation about the 1937 letter fromPresident Franklin Roosevelt to then-National Federation of FederalEmployees National President Luther Steward, a letter that many claimdemonstrates Roosevelt?s disfavor of public-sector unionism.

I know this letter well because the original version of it hangs onthe wall five feet outside of my office at the national headquartersof NFFE, the organization I lead.

...

?Organizations of Government employees have a logical place inGovernment affairs. The desire of Government employees for fair andadequate pay, reasonable hours of work, safe and suitable workingconditions, development of opportunities for advancement, facilitiesfor fair and impartial consideration and review of grievances, andother objectives of a proper employee relations policy, is basicallyno different from that of employees in private industry.?

So what is one to take from Roosevelt?s perceived dissonance aboutpublic unions? This letter was saying one thing and one thing only:Federal employees should not have the right to strike.

It is clear that this letter was written to federal employees aboutthe importance of not having strikes in federal agencies because ofnational security concerns. Nothing more.

To suggest this is evidence that Roosevelt ? the father of workers?rights to form and join unions ? shares an ideological lineage withWalker?s union-busting tactics is outrageous and disingenuous. A voicein the workplace for teachers, firefighters and other public employeesis not a matter of national security, it is a matter of dignity forworkers.

I can say with conviction and history firmly on my side that ifRoosevelt was around today, he would lead the charge for workers?rights to unionize ? public and private."

"But as anyone who reads the entire letter from which the articlequotes, ever so selectively, can easily see - FDR did not opposefederal public employee unions. He opposed strikes by federal publicemployee unions.

...

[From FDR's letter:]

"I congratulate the National Federation of Federal Employees thetwentieth anniversary of its founding and trust that the conventionwill, in every way, be successful."

Emphasis added. Also note that in these records, the addressee islisted as the sender, but as noted at the source, this letter was fromFDR to Mr. Seward.

And who was this National Federation of Federal Employees that FDR wascongratulating?

A union representing federal employees since 1917:

NFFE was officially created at a labor convention in Washington, D.C.on September 17, 1917. It formed as an affiliate of the AFL and was atthe time the federal employees union, representing several trades andindustries. NFFE and other unions were able to form after 1912, whenCongress passed the Lloyd-Lafollette Act to overturn TheodoreRoosevelt's previous executive order. Roosevelt's mandate, frequentlyreferred to as the "gag rule" had previously prevented unionizedactivity.http://www.nffe.org/...

So, to repeat, another important lesson here: When middle-classdestroying, union bashing Republicans quote FDR in support of theiragenda, assume they are lying.

Again."

To all:

FDR would have changed his views about collective bargaining forfederal employees and agreed with JFK.

It is obscene for conservatives to lie about FDR, to imply that hewould support their hatred of all that is good and decent in theeconomic sphere even just a bit, that he would support their socialDarwinism even just a bit. To see this, here is part of what thisdecent man said in 1944 during WWII when the outcome hung in thebalance a half a year before D-Day, in his last State of the Unionaddress, delivered as one of his fireside chats:

There is video of FDR giving this Second Bill of Rights was found byMichael Moore during his research for his movie on the obscene,ruthless, bloodthirsty horror devoid of all conscience thatunregulated big corporate capitalism has become in the US (think ofRomney's company - see the below). It is shown in this Wikipedia page- - press the right-arrow to see it. See many versions of it also atYou-Tube by entering "Second Bill of Rights".

Just this past week, Romney's Bain, the 51% owner of Sensata, haskilled these 17 dollar per hour American jobs and sent them to China -to pay them less than 1 dollar per hour. This, even though thiscompany Sensata (making auto parts) has just posted record revenue andrecord profits, in part because Obama saved the US auto industry.